


our yesterdays (are like a lonely and a ruined land)

by apinchofcyanide



Series: Dreadful Infinity [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:37:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apinchofcyanide/pseuds/apinchofcyanide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>I could retire here</i>, she thinks, laying back and shielding her eyes against the light. The sun burns white in the aquamarine sky, high overhead, and everything is just so warm. Spend enough time up in the void of space and a sort of chill seeps into your bones that’s hard to get rid of, but right now she hardly remembers what cold feels like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	our yesterdays (are like a lonely and a ruined land)

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble inspired by [this prompt](http://suddenlyprompts.tumblr.com/post/73992081493/the-planet-would-have-been-perfect-but-the-sun) on Tumblr. Thanks to Kathleen for assuring me this wasn't awful. Title is from _Invocation to the Sun_ by Henry Abbey.

The planet would be perfect, but the sun is just a little too bright. 

It’s classified as an “unclaimed terrestrial object”—unclaimed because it sits  _just_ this side of too close to the inner rim of its host star’s Goldilocks zone. The Galactic Alliance won’t shell out the money to build a base here, and none of the individual Interplanetary branches want to waste bank funding colonization efforts, but for the individual who is enterprising enough—or just insane enough—it could be quite the vacation spot.

Sola has been called both.

She reclines on the white sand and lets the tide wash over her feet, cool water refreshing despite the sun that beats down on the beach. The air smells like sea salt and the sweet, almost cloying scent of nearby neon-colored flowers, their stalks as high as Sola is tall, and the only sound besides her steady breathing is the sound of the waves lapping gently against the shore.

There are beaches on her home planet, too, but the sand there is black, volcanic, and swimming in that dismal gray ocean would be akin to swimming in a vat of acid. Her memories of the beaches back home are all tainted—black ash caking her clothes, the oxygen mask she had to wear each time she escaped off-base. Here no masks are needed; she can breathe as deep as she wants without the air searing her lungs.

From somewhere nearby her wrist comm begins to beep, signaling that her time is up. She finds it discarded in the sand, and, after silencing the annoying beeping, she throws the whole thing into the royal blue water for good measure. 

 _I could retire here_ , she thinks, laying back and shielding her eyes against the light. The sun burns white in the aquamarine sky, high overhead, and everything is just so  _warm_. Spend enough time up in the void of space and a sort of chill seeps into your bones that’s hard to get rid of, but right now she hardly remembers what cold feels like. 

She’s considering taking advantage of the peace and quiet that she never finds aboard the ship and having a nap, but just as she starts to drift off, something tall and broad blocks out the sunlight, and a voice breaks the relative silence. 

"What is this place?"

Sola opens her eyes slowly, wanting to prolong the inevitable just a little. Kovah stares back at her, expression mildly curious and maybe a bit concerned. She sighs, pushing herself back up into a sitting position. 

"Just a planet I visited once," she shrugs.

"Is beautiful, this planet."

"It’s not actually as nice as I remember it."

Sola rests her chin on her knees, and Kovah moves so that he can see her face. He looks terribly out of place on a beach in all his gear. “What are you doing in here, Kovah?” she asks. “I expressly ordered Auvaea not to let anyone disturb me.”

Kovah stares at her, bemused. “Alarm go off, Captain not come out of chamber,” he explains, each word a labor of concentration, his Universal Standard heavily accented by the native tongue of his home planet.

The corner of Sola's mouth quirks as she glances up at Kovah, squinting against the sun. “Concerned about me, Kovah?” she teases. “Afraid I’ll spend too much time in here and get lost in my own mind?”

Kovah stares resolutely at the pale sand. “Been known to happen,” he mutters.

Her expression goes soft. “Here,” she says, patting the ground beside her. “Sit with me for a while.”

Kovah eyes the ground dubiously; then Sola blinks and his standard-class bodysuit has melted into beachwear, and he folds his gangly limbs into a sitting position at her side. She immediately lays her head on his shoulder, and together they stare out at the water for a while. It’s inexplicably sunset now, though it had been just after midday when Kovah showed up, and the sky has turned brilliant shades of pink and lavender, the reflection of the setting sun like fire on the dark water. Twilight envelops them, but the air is still warm, night-scented. Sola loops her arm through Kovah’s.

"Nice," he finally offers into the silence, and despite the limited vocabulary, she knows what he means.

"Yes," she sighs, and doesn’t think about the fact that soon they’ll have to return to the waking world, and the cold, black emptiness of space.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting me on [Patreon](http://www.patreon.com/paigewrites).


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